NCW Libraries

"Engaging images accompany information about rescue missions. The combination of high-interest subject matter and light text is intended for students in grades 2 through 7"--

In 2006, 27-year-old Jessica Buchanan arrived in Nairobi, Kenya, with long-held dreams of helping to educate African children. By 2009, she had met and married a Swede named Erik Landemalm, who worked to coordinate humanitarian aid with authorities in Africa. They moved to Somalia with hopes of starting a family. Then on October 25, 2011, Jessica and a colleague were kidnapped and held for ransom by a band of Somali pirates. For the next three months,...

"Now in her mid-thirties, Loewen has become a wife, a mother, and a leader of Seattle Mountain Rescue (SMR), a volunteer-based search-and-rescue operation. She no longer struggles with the respect of co-workers--she has it in spades--nor crippling self-doubt--overcome after hundreds of rescues. But she does still ponder the question of why she continues to head into the backcountry, confronting danger, risk, and, often, death. SMR is involved in everything...

Watch the telling of dramatic real-life stories from across the globe, using footage captured by the rescuers themselves; this series puts viewers in the center of the action for every heart-stopping twist and turn as they witness life-saving feats in real time.

These are the stories that defy conventional logic. The proverbial vanished without a trace incidences, which happen a lot more (and a lot closer to your backyard) than almost anyone thinks. These are the missing whose situations are the hardest on loved ones left behind. The cases that are an embarrassment for park superintendents, rangers and law enforcement charged with Search & Rescue. The ones that baffle the volunteers who comb the mountains,...

Fundamentals of Mantracking outlines and describes the principles of renowned tracker--and former Border Patrol agent Ab Taylor's Step-by-Step Method. The rudiments of tracking are explained in a straightforward and entertaining way. Ab's life's work was not necessarily to make everyone an expert tracker -- although with practice this could certainly occur -- but to make everyone aware of the potential of tracking, especially when finding someone...

A Gold Star wife alone ... Ellie Meeks promised her pilot husband that if he was killed in combat, she would live her life to the fullest. Three years later, she is still alone, raising the twins he never met. She has no interest in dating or meeting men--until one snowy night when a stranger helps her get her sick kids safely home. That stranger turns out to be a former Army Ranger and a member of the elite Rocky Mountain Search & Rescue Team. He's...

"In the heart of the Maine woods, an experienced Appalachian Trail hiker goes missing. She is forty-two-year-old Valerie Gillis, who has vanished 200 miles from her final destination. Alone in the wilderness, Valerie pours her thoughts into fractured, poetic letters to her mother as she battles the elements and struggles to keep hoping. At the heart of the investigation is Beverly, the determined Maine State Game Warden tasked with finding Valerie,...

"The Search and Rescue mystery series returns readers to Timber Creek, where the hot, dry Santa Ana winds are blowing. But more than just the threat of wildfire endangers the tiny mountain community... Gracie and her Search and Rescue teammates are searching along the highway in the middle of the blisteringly hot Mojave Desert when they make a grisly discovery--a trash bag containing human body parts. Not long after, Gracie's growing friendship with...

In December 2014, a fire broke out in a house in Baldwin County, Georgia. A woman who was trapped inside managed to call 911. However, the smoke was so thick that she was unable to speak. Deputy Josh Mays responded to the call. When he arrived at the scene, flames were pouring out of the house. He ran inside the burning home and spotted the victim on the floor in the kitchen. Then, suddenly, the roof began to collapse. Would the deputy be able to...